76ers-Kings postponed due to slick, slippery floor in Philly

The Philadelphia 76ers and Sacramento Kings were scheduled to kick off Wednesday night’s 10-game NBA slate. But after a delay of more than an hour “due to an issue regarding the surface of the court,” the game was officially postponed, much to the chagrin of those who turned out to Wells Fargo Center. [restrict]

The issue with the playing surface, it seems, is that it is for some reason really wet and slippery, perhaps due to unseasonable warmth and humidity in Philadelphia for late November:

That was just conjecture, though. Apparently, nobody really knew what caused the slick court. From Dan Levy of BillyPenn.com:

“We’re not sure,” Sixers CEO Scott O’Neil told [Marc] Zumoff, [the play-by-play man for Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia’s Sixers coverage,] when asked about what caused the moisture. “Originally some thought it was condensation, which means from the ice that comes up and the floor is wet. And that’s a really easy solve. Literally you just dry it off and it’s fine. It doesn’t seem to be that, so we’re not sure.”

This highly unusual situation — “We play indoors for a reason,” quipped Zumoff — dragged on well past the originally scheduled tipoff time. Despite multiple reports from beat writers that a decision had been made to postpone the game, at 7:45 p.m. ET, the 76ers had public address announcer Matt Cord announce that no determination to that effect had yet been made, and that another update would be coming at 8 p.m. ET.

Shortly after 8 p.m. ET, Cord returned to the mic to announce that all concerned had agreed to postpone the game, lest someone get hurt unnecessarily.

“The NBA game scheduled for this evening between the Philadelphia 76ers and Sacramento Kings at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia has been postponed due to unsafe playing conditions on the arena floor,” the NBA said in a statement. “The game will be rescheduled at a later date.” [/restrict]